Power Couples
by Danny Barefoot
Summary: A collection of shorts themed around romance and heroism. Will include OC hero couples. Big fan of Deku/Uravity. BNHA belongs to the copyright holders, not me. REUPLOADED with text sorted out.
1. A Hero's Family

The small public clinic in rural Mie hadn't been visibly much changed by the age of superpowers. A third-rate ultrasound user worked in Maternity, a third-rate empath supported diagnostics and a second-rate healer, with first-rate dedication to his work–

–meant that Ochako's father would be walking out of surgery rather than crippled for life. Though all the power and effort in the world would have meant nothing, if the first girder had fallen the other way and struck his head.

Not that Uraraka Ochako, at eight, could have imagined a world without her father's presence and care. She only knew, from her mother's clasped hands and trembling side, that her mother didn't know what was happening either. In the empty waiting room, smelling of cleaning fluid and damp bulletins, the future stretched out an unfathomed pit. The man they loved was lost on the far side; the bright little gravity-girl had never felt more trapped by time and silence.

"Mummy? Why did Daddy get hurt, Mummy?"

(_Why, Mummy? Why Daddy? How could he be? How could he?_)

"Sometimes bad stuff happens to good people, honey. That's why we have heroes and doctors. They're going to make everything better."

"Will Daddy stop going out to build things, and not get hurt again? You promised before, Mummy! The last time, you promised never, never again!"

Though she was small, Ochako had picked up on the existence idea of high and lofty things called 'building site safety regs'–and formed a vague but true belief that they were not well followed, on the only projects where her Quirkless father could find the smallest subcontract. All she couldn't face or name was the fear, that tore her in two as she cried.

Ochako's mother met her girl's world-wide, fervent eyes. Not without a shudder, but unflinching, she squeezed her hand and spoke firmly.

"Honey, building things is Mummy and Daddy's job. We built up our little company; we held up each other, through the years. When you're old enough to follow your dreams–even if you hurt yourself or make a mistake–we will always support you, Ochako, and love you wherever you go. But now we have to be here for Daddy and love him. He needs us both."

Ochako held her mother's hand very tight. She fidgeted, sniffled and wished she could be even a little bit strong like her mother. Could she be? Would her parents really be with her forever?

Mr Uraraka finally stepped out of surgery, not exactly like John Wayne–rather more sheepish and ashamed over the trouble he had caused, and about a thousand times stronger. Mrs Uraraka kissed him deeply, still holding her daughter's hand. The healing-powered doctor was in a white-faced worse state than his patient, after siphoning off his own life force–Ochako's mother pushed her girl's head down as she bowed to her waist.

Her father told Ochako he was sorry; he'd remember to duck next time. It hurt her too much to look at him or speak, with all her fear and smallness and love–but she quietly pushed her hand into his. They left the hospital together, and they were all laughing again before the van reached home.

-0-

Seven years later, Izuku Midoriya had broken his arm in training, again. It would be quickly restored by the finest healer in the Home Islands, but the wait outside the infirmary still seemed long to Ochako. Long enough to worry and vacillate; to rage at her own weak heart, and at _Deku's_ reckless, incredible strength that had broken it. Even if it were love–surely it couldn't be! She just admired him, a lot, _how could she know?_–even _then_, how could she give her heart to this boy? He walked a road of brutal pain stretching beyond her vision? She would have to be stronger than her _mother_ to endure it!

On her hero shoulderpads, she felt her parents hands. She smiled with them like a rose-pink sun. Beyond distance and even death, her parents were with her, and they were stronger together.

Deku left the clinic with the definite stride of a boy on a mission. Though this dissolved to sheepish stammerings and apology when Ochako readily presented her smiling face to his, fingers dancing together behind her back.

"Heya Deku! Are you doing okay? Do you want to eat lunch together?"


	2. Unseen Encounter

_A/N: An adaption of chpt 38, final ep of season 2; Izuku's encounter in the shopping mall with Shiguraki._

* * *

A hero knows no fear; Uraraka Ochako knew that. It must have been _panic_ that made her flee through the shops and crowds, like a flapping red-cheeked robin. Flying from an eagle–_no_, flying from _Deku_, her fuzzy and fearless friend. They'd been left alone in a crowd together, as if by conspiracy; he'd turned his big blank eyes to her face.

She'd happened to notice how especially messy his hair was today. His wife would have to enjoy brushing it neat, evening and morn. Then–though Deku was smaller than her father, barely taller than her–how those trained muscles, yes, his _pectorals_, stood out under his shirt, and peeked over his neckline. A vigilant hero had to observe all manner of things.

"…everyone left. Um, well, Uraraka-san! Um, what were you thinking of…?"

Then Aoyama's silly idea she had a _crush_ surged back, like a hot spring bubbling up to shake her chest. She watched his mouth move, and she hadn't known what it meant or what she'd feared…_in a public place_! Or why was she even afraid of something so very, very…_very_, so that she ran from her friend's gentle voice, as she hoped she would never, _ever_ run from a Villain.

_"I need…bug spray!" _She managed to shout.

_"…am I a bug?!" _Came Izuku's tremulous cry, from the crowd behind. Silly Deku. Stupid, stupid her.

Away from his eyes, the hot spring seeped back underground. She still had to splash her face in the restroom; it was quite a warm day. Then she wandered off through the bright gewgaws and drifting, ceaseless crowds of the perfectly ordinary shopping mall. Trying to be the sensible girl she was.

Deku was her friend, _that was all_, and if she thought of it maybe six times a minute–he was just such a super friend. He'd saved her in the entrance exams; he'd protected her in the team duel. And he fought through mumbling shyness and shattered bones, to build himself into the very best he could be. From Iida to Bakugou, everyone saw it–though it would have been a heady, selfish pleasure, if no one believed in his hero heart but her.

But she had run from him. Left her fuzzy, faithful friend alone and stammering. She would have to apologise when she found him, she _knew_–

(–almost nothing of the hot undertow beneath her heart. But she knew her _parents, _unheroic, and indomitable. Her friend's blushes, however sweet, were nothing like her father's invincible love. Training and years might stiffen him–but then the greatest hero in the world would soar from her reach. She couldn't love a stammering boy, who broke a new bone each week; she did not have her mother's patient strength. She had to grow, or she would explode from within, she had to–)

–she had to say _sorry_, for running off like an idiot, and resist that nice-guy charm. _No_, she had to be sensible, and spend an ordinary, _wonderful_ day buying cut-price sensible camp gear…and, maybe, a innocently daring bikini, if she cut down next month's food bill…with her friend. Then it would be off to training camp together, working like horses in the fields and class huts, to be the best they could be. Then the provisional license test, then work studies, then the culture-fest; more classes and exams. The fervent, devoted paths of a hero-in-training; rolling on like the chattering, gazing crowds. Without time for love, but that was fine–when each day was full of fun, adventure and work, to build up their marvellous future.

When Ochako found Izuku Midoriya where she had left him, she saw him dead.

-0-

_"…no…"_

The dark man had his hand on Deku's neck. She thought for a second it was a friend's embrace, _it couldn't be anything else_. The day was bright, children tapped on their phones or begged their parents for ice cream–then the world was a frozen sea. Nothing but the hand, and Izuku's watering eyes.

He was dead. The man she loved was about to die–too late, too late, she _knew_. The fingers would close, his eyes would shut. All the effort, terror and striving hope would vanish. A hero would die before he was born, in the middle of a shopping mall, without a name or story. The crowds rolled around them, children laughed and wailed; nobody saw Izuku Midoriya's death or life.

_"Get your hands off him…"_

A weak, small voice. Still, even _now_, her world-smashing heart was locked with her feet. But as the dark man rolled a reddened eye towards her, her eyes never left Izuku Midoriya's face.

_"It's okay! I'm fine! Don't come any closer!"_

He was calling to her. With death around his throat, Deku was only afraid for her. She was useless. She had left him alone, a minute–but he would not die alone, never. She would watch his struggle and courage. Love him, to the very end. And he _wouldn't_ die! He was Deku, he could smash through any monster to save her, he could not–

The dark man moved. Shiguraki Tomura threw up his hands, smiling like a zombie.

"Aha. My mistake. I didn't think you'd have a friend with you…"

He stepped away from the bench where Deku sat and choked, his windpipe free; even heroes had to breathe. Ochako dropped to her knees at his side. There was nothing for her but him–but he was still fixed on the Villain. After everything, when Shiguraki said he would kill Deku the next time they met, she rose to her feet in rage. With her martial arts she could touch him first; then send him to the stratosphere where he would never hurt her boy–

"_Hrk_…Uraraka…"

Deku's hand held her back; strangely rough with scars, circling her wrist–and strong. Shiguraki's black hood was a far blot, among the innocent people.

"Deku-kun, are you alright? You're alright?" Nod, "Then, I should get the police–!"

"No! Stay with me. It's dangerous."

Ochako flopped down on the bench beside Deku, still staring at his face. The worst had happened, but they had trained for disaster. She had to check him for injuries–her hand moved to his chest and stopped there–and then she had to keep talking, make sure his spirit stayed bright. She gazed back into Deku's eyes; his gasping breaths touched her lips.

Ruin had seized him without warning, at his weakest–an ordinary student, on an ordinary day. And he had talked back to the devil; fought down all fear. He had endured. Since her father had carried her from their repossessed house to a bedsit, when she'd been six, Ochako had known what the greatest courage was. Hadn't Deku saved all these people, a true, unyielding hero at every step?

The people didn't see, as they spent and laughed, it was more than they could imagine. But she was breathless and burning at the top of the world with _him_–on a shopping mall bench, under a silly fake palm tree!–and there was strength enough for forever in his darling face.

"Deku…are you okay? Are you hurt at all…?"

"My neck. It's okay…"

It was okay. They'd been taught that people in shock from disaster do funny things. Her arms slid around his chest. She wasn't letting him go, not ever. Her mouth rested above the neck of his tee-shirt. Nuzzled against soft skin.

"Um, Uraraka-san–!"

"Shush. Please, please, please…let me…"

As if she plucked any cry of panic away, her fingers stroked over his neck. His poor throat, his hard, strange Adam's apple. Wasn't it right to do this, even in public? Wasn't this where her hero had been hurt? If they'd snogged each other's faces off, in front of every teacher in U.A. and _everyone_, it wouldn't have been _enough_…she shut her eyes, gripped his shirt. Parted her lips to kiss, between his invincible shoulders. It was right and brave and good. She was here for her man, for always.

No one looked past the shops of stuff, no one saw anything. Did Toru-chan always feel this powerful? Then her arms and her chest–why couldn't _more_ of her body touch those muscles? Why not every hour and day?–felt the tension pour from Deku's body. Like a cat prepared to leap. She needed a new word for what she felt. They were in public. Her skin was burning for his hands–but surely someone would see…?

A small girl called to her parents about the dirty couple sat near the electronics store. A phone flashed in the crowd, as they sprang apart, and it all fell down in babbling apology.

"Uraraka-san, I'm so sorry! How could I do that to you?!"

"Deku-kun, you didn't do anything! I–I–I, we didn't know what, I…!"

She had to show Deku she'd wanted him by kissing him on the lips. Her First Kiss was a hurried peck, completely unromantic, and swollen with shame by staring eyes. But she could not bear to have Izuku look on her with guilt for another second. She would have given it all, to comfort those wavering eyes, to show him he was her hero and her man. But they could not. True heroes had to stand before the world for everyone, and take the pain.

-0-

Uraraka had to get the police, on her discount flip-phone; Deku had to pull himself sufficiently together to give a sensible statement. The chief of the League of Villains had attacked a lone trainee hero, in public. That had to be countered, that mattered more than either of them; that was what any kind of hero had to do.

They waited in silence, not daring to hold hands. Some of the shoppers probably imagined the police were responding to a sexual harassment complaint. And yet, always and forever, they were the people that Deku and Uravity would fight to lay their lives down for.

When the photo got onto the internet, All-Might and Aizawa had separate, perfectly friendly talks with Izuku and Ochako. Of course, they had been in shock. It would be a tragedy if this incident disrupted an irreplaceable friendship, or their teamwork. The path of the student hero, though, was narrow, hard and exclusive. For the safety and peace of the world, U.A. High had a reputation and its students stuck to it. So both teachers said–and both students, as well. They believed in heroes, and they knew the truth.

They left for the summer break without a word, resolved never to speak of the kiss again. Weeks later, as they boarded the bus to the training camp, all was back to normal; Deku was a babbling mess around Ochako, waving his hands–and the moment she saw them, she was blushing and wriggling as well.

It was something they shared, even in silence, that Ochako carried for years. She would make herself strong; put saving the innocent world ahead of her own heart. Just like the hero she admired. The man she loved. And if she was like Deku, didn't that mean…that the glowing ache in her heart was shared too? Ochako his her face and smiled, as she got on the bus to camp, while Mina Ashido and Yaoyorozu chatted beside her.


End file.
